EDSA 1986 Revisited: Marcos Going, Going, Gone!
Part Four.
On February 25, Cory Aquino was inaugurated as President of the Philippines, with her running mate Doy Laurel as Vice-President. In a simple ceremony at Club Filipino in Greenhills, about a kilometer away from Camp Crame, they were sworn in by Justices of the Supreme Court Claudio Teehankee and Vicente Abad Santos. In attendance were Ramos, Enrile and many opposition politicians, and the Bible on which Cory swore her oath was held by Aurora Aquino, Ninoy’s mother.
An hour later, Marcos held his inauguration at Malacañang Palace with his loyalist civilians attending the ceremony, shouting “Marcos, Marcos, Marcos pa rin! (Marcos, Marcos, still Marcos!)”. On the Palace balcony, Marcos took his oath as the President of the Philippines and Imelda sang their theme song,”Dahil Sa Iyo” tearfully as usual. The broadcast of the event was also cut off as rebel troops successfully captured the other stations.
By this time, thousands of people had amassed at the barricades along Mendiola, near Malacañang. They were prevented from storming the Palace by loyal government troops securing the area. The angry demonstrators were pacified by priests who warned them not to be violent.
Connie Santiago (now Veneracion), a male law student whom I can’t remember, and I were sent to act as the Quick Reaction Team (QRT) to help the protesters along Mendiola. We got there in record time in Connie’s speedy brown Corolla as there were no cars on the road but we had to turn back as we could not get through.
About an hour after we got back to the UP Law Liberation Forces headquarters on 7th Avenue, we heard that Marcos may have fled the country. The marchers from Mendiola had stormed the gates of Malacañang and started raiding and looting the place. Marcos and his inauguration party were no longer there.
It was closer to dawn on February 26 when we confirmed the news that Marcos, his family and cronies indeed had left the country. Because of the false alarm the day before, we were skeptical, because Maecos may have just left Malacañang Palace but not the country.
For the first time in my life I felt the veil of fear lifting from the populace. You see, while Marcos was around the Filipino was never sure if his property would not be confiscated, his business closed down or worst of all, if he would not be abducted by the military police and killed. I had witnessed these events with my own young eyes and knew how brutal his regime was. There actually was palpable fear in the air.
That bright and happy Wednesday morning, there were suddenly many cars on the road, going every which way. Complete strangers would wave at each other, flash the Laban sign (Cory’s campaign sign with the thumb and index finger forming a letter L). I saw two cars bump each other and there was not the usual violent reaction and finger pointing — instead, the two men shrugged their shoulders, laughed, shook hands and went their own way.
And what was the first thing we did to celebrate? Drink San Miguel Beer!
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Post Script:
Many of those who read blogs or the news nowadays probably do not understand important it is to celebrate the “EDSA Revolution” Anniversary. We celebrate those days because for one brief shining moment the Philippines showed the world how it was possible to topple a well-entrenched dictatorship through non-violent means — something that has been repeated all over the world after 1986.
Maybe this is precisely why Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is afraid to celebrate it.
Angel Esguerra was with us. He had his heart in his throat when I turned around to avoid the burning molotovs hahahahaha
Twas Angel?! I was a freshman then in evening class and didn’t really know many of the upperclassmen. That was a pretty wild ride we had! I remember feeling bad because we were not able to reach Malacanang (FYI to those born late, before that day, very few had seen the inside of the Presidential palace) but looking back now, it may not have been a good experience to storm the place with the angry crowd.
Dear Baguio Insider,
I was in the Philippines on this past Feb 25th and stunned at how small the celebrations were. The pro Marcos groups in Lunetta Park seemed more active by comparison. I am going to file a video report about the EDSA Revolution in the coming weeks and welcome any of you are readers thoughts.
Sincerely
Trace
Trace@vbs.tv
New York City
Hi Trace, and thanks for dropping by.
President Arroyo warned “The world will not, however, forgive another Edsa but would instead condemn the Philippines as a country whose political system is hopelessly unstable and Filipinos as among the finest people in the world but who always shoot themselves in the foot.”
Of course she toned down the EDSA celebrations this year, fearing probably that her unpopular government may be the target of “EDSA 3.”
Hey Lisa, so glad to have found your blog. I was reminiscing about EDSA last month. Gand Badoy of RockEd got me on her radio show and there was Satur Ocampo and osme young people talkig about it. Oh yes the UP Law Liberation Forces. What a great moment in history. Thank goodness for you, Princess, Alma, Alvin, Butch, Leman, and everybody for making sure we ate well and drank lots of pale pilsen! Who would have thought that we would hve the singular honor of toasting people power as it happened! See you soon, Gao
Gao (George, Jake, Chong!), old friend, how I miss you guys and all that beer (remember it was vodka for a while when Cory called for civil disobedience)!
And we are once again caught up in interesting times with the ‘Queen of Darkness’ and the Philippines we created after EDSA. How we get out of this rut is something the world has been watching with bated breath for decades. Good luck to us all.